CES 'Worst in Show' Awards Spotlight Tech Backlash
The "Worst in Show" awards at CES 2026, organized by iFixit and partners, have regained prominence by highlighting wasteful or privacy-invasive gadgets. The awards reflect growing consumer and analyst skepticism toward "innovation for innovation's sake," with many criticized products featuring excessive data collection or unclear user benefits. Devices leveraging location data without transparent user controls drew particular scrutiny.
- The "Worst in Show" awards were started by the digital rights coalition, including Repair.org, iFixit, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), to highlight products with the worst privacy, security, repairability, and sustainability at CES. - One of the "Worst in Show" winners for 2026 was a smart treadmill from a Chinese company named Merach, which was criticized for its explicit admission that it could not guarantee the safety of user data. Another winner was the Lollipop Star, a disposable lollipop with a non-rechargeable battery and a speaker that transmits music through jaw vibrations, which was criticized for its environmental impact. - In 2026, Samsung's "Bespoke AI Family Hub" refrigerator won the overall "Worst in Show" award due to reliability concerns and for adding unnecessary complexity, like voice commands to open the door, to a simple appliance. This followed a trend, as LG's AI-powered refrigerator won the same award in 2025 for similar reasons. - Amazon's Ring doorbell cameras have been a repeat recipient of the "Worst in Show" for privacy. In 2026, new AI features, including facial recognition and "Unusual Event Alerts," were criticized by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for expanding surveillance. - The "People's Choice" for worst product in 2026 went to an AI companion called Ami from the Chinese company Lepro, marketed as an "always-on 3D soulmate." The public voiced concerns over it being a 24/7 surveillance device due to its always-on camera and microphone that track eye movements and tone of voice. - The critique of "innovation for innovation's sake" is part of a wider "Techlash" movement, which questions the societal benefits of new technology and points to issues like surveillance, environmental harm, and the erosion of privacy. - A major focus of the awards is repairability, with iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens highlighting products designed to be difficult or impossible to repair. For example, the Ultrahuman Rare, a $2,200 luxury smart ring, was named "least repairable" in 2025 because its battery, which only lasts about 500 charges, cannot be replaced without destroying the device. - The awards also scrutinize the necessity of features added to everyday objects. In 2025, a Samsung washing machine with the ability to make phone calls was highlighted in the "who asked for this?" category, with critics arguing such additions make appliances more expensive and harder to fix.
